The Very Hungry Caterpillar Cake Topper Tutorial

I will preface this tutorial by saying that with all the fondant I’m using I have mixed in some tylose powder (1/2 teaspoon to 250g of fondant) so that the caterpillar will dry hard. I also suggest making this as early in advance as possible (I made mine a week beforehand).

Begin with shaping some red coloured fondant (I buy the premixed red colour… the cake art brand), and then shape into a curved rectangle.

(and yes… your hand will turn red with the premixed colours!)

Roll out some yellow fondant and stamp out 2 circles (if you don’t have a circle cutter, you could try using a straw)

Place on the head to check for size and then set aside to harden.

I’ve placed some baking paper onto my surface so that I will be able to remove the caterpillar easily once it has dried.

Using a modelling tool, make 2 holes on the head for the antennae

Roll out some purple fondant into a thin sausage shape, making a point at one end.

Add some water or edible glue to the holes and insert the antennae

I did end up removing the antennae while I made the body of the caterpillar so that they could have some time to harden into shape. This is because when you set the head flat, it is easy for the antennae to bend out of shape.

To get the marbled effect for the caterpillar’s body, I used Americolor’s Leaf Green

Divide your fondant into 3 balls

Colour one ball with a decent amount of green colouring, then remove a small portion of that ball and mix in with another white ball to end up with 3 balls of differing colours.

Does that make sense?!! Basically… rather than trying to colour two of the balls, the best way is to get a really strong coloured ball and to make a mid coloured ball by using a small part of the strong green fondant into the white ball (rather than using food colouring again).

Place the balls on top of each other and start mixing them in together by twisting them around.

Set aside a small amount of marbled green for the eyes and nose, and divide the rest into different sized balls, attempting to make your caterpillar shape.

It doesn’t matter whether these are smooth or not (you can see the lines in mine!) – it all adds to the character of the caterpillar.

Dab each ball on either side with some water or edible glue and then stick them together and squish them up in shape.

Dab some glue/water to the left side of the head and carefully move the body and attach it to the head.

Glue on the antennae and the yellow eyes.

Roll out a small ball for the nose and then stamp out two circles for the eyes (smaller circles than the yellow eyes). The alternative is to roll up two small balls for the eyes and to flatten them into shape.

Attach to the face.

Carefully insert 3 toothpicks as these will be used to attach the caterpillar to the cake. You can see that I was worried about one of the antennae bending out of shape, so I used a bit of baking paper to sit behind it so that it will harden in the right place.

I buy mine from the UK and have it shipped over. You can either buy modelling paste which is like fondant, but will harden, or gum tragacanth which you can add to fondant and it will harden. Modelling paste is more expensive so it works out better in the long term to get the gum/tylose, but it will def do the job! All the best

Love the tutorials! I’m due to try making the cake for my daughter’s first birthday – in two days time! *quakes nervously*

Just have a couple of questions:
– what’s the best way to stick the hardened fondant decorations to the cake – royal icing or edible glue made from tylo?
– what’s the best way of storing the cake, to keep it fresh before the party? It’s too big for my cake tins!

You can use either edible glue or water… most of the time I actually use water because I don’t have edible glue on hand. Once you have ganached and covered the cake, the ganache will work to protect the cake and keep it fresh. Depending on what filling you use in between your layers, your cake will last up to 7 days (with a ganache filling) or 3 days (with a IMBC filling). I usually fill and ganache my cake 2 days before, and then cover and decorate the day before the party. I leave my cake on the bench or sometimes on top of a cupboard (if I’m scared my kids might touch it!)

I’ve made an 8″ and 6″ which is what I usually make for birthday parties (for 50-80 people). Sometimes it all goes and sometimes only half goes. It really depends on what mood the guests are in and whether they’ve been eating cupcakes/cookies as well!! I’ve never run out of cake before (but in saying that, i always make cupcakes and cookies for every party)

Hi! Love your cake! I made all the decorations for my daughter’s second birthday (next week). I just had a question about how you stacked the cake. Did you use straws, wooden dowels, cardboard? I was thinking of only inserting straws into the bottom tier, but after making the caterpillar, I realized how heavy it is and am worried that it won’t stay up on the first tier. Do you have any tips? This is the first cake I have ever made, so any tips would be helpful. THANKS!

Good on you for making the VHC cake! I’m sure it will look fantastic!!

I really should do a post about stacking a cake 🙂 But what I do is insert wooden cake dowels (which I buy from a cake decorating shop) and put four in the bottom cake (in the middle) and then place the top cake on top. Each cake is on a cake board when I ganache and then cover it. I use a little ganache to ‘stick’ the top tier onto the bottom tier. Hope that makes sense!!!

The 12″ and 9″ will be perfect!! I just used an 8 and 6 because of the number of guests I had at the party

Just discovered your site while looking for help to make my son’s first birthday cake. THANK YOU SO MUCH! This tutorial is very straightforward and even a novice like me can try to attempt it. No guess work involved. This is exactly what I wanted – a very hungry caterpillar cake. Will be dropping by again very soon!

Hi Bronnie
Thank you so much for your amazing blog. I’ve only recently discovered baking and your site has made it so much easier for me to learn.

I followed your VHC tutorial and made my son’s first birthday cake (for his party yesterday) and it was a huge success. I felt very clever bringing it out and was very excited to have people questioning whether I made it myself or not (because it was so pretty!). I also made lemon curd push pops following your instructions and they were very popular and received glowing reviews!

Hi Bronnie!
I’m going to attempt to make this cake for my son’s birthday in a few days. I wasn’t planning on covering the whole cake in fondant but then I’m wondering if the pieces will just stick to the icing I use. Please let me know what you think. Thanks for the awesome tutorials!
Brittany

Hello Bronnie! I love your cake! I have some questions for you. I’d like to try candy clay instead of fondant. I’ve never tried it before but I sure do like to learn to use different mediums. Would you still recommend, when using candy clay, to make the caterpillar and the cut outs a week ahead of time? How would I keep them fresh before they’re placed on the cake that will be delivered? Can I brush on corn syrup, which is what is used with candy melt to make the candy clay, in order to place the cut outs on the cake? Would you happen to know if the candy clay will be hard to eat once it’s on the cake if the cut outs are made a week ahead of time? Thank you for your time and for all you do to make it possible for us to enjoy and appreciate cake decorating 🙂 Connie

I have never heard of candy clay… but it sounds a bit like modelling chocolate? I’m so sorry but I’ve never used it before so I can’t really help you out with keeping it fresh or attaching it to the cake. Sorry!!

Hello Bronnie,
Thank you for responding and you are very well. I appreciate you sending the info on the modelling chocolate. I’ll take a look at it!
Enjoy your day and I’m looking forward to seeing more of your talent. 🙂
Conniecmail64@msn.com

Hi Bronnie,
This cake is so amazing and you make the tutorial sound so easy, I’m going to give it a go for my son’s first b’day next month! Did you have a tutorial on making the other decorations on the cake like the fruit and cheese etc? Thanks SO much : )

Hello, my friend. I’m so glad I found this! I want to make this for my son’s birthday in three weeks (the big ONE oh my goodness!) and was wondering if you could tell me if it will keep in a container before hand. I guess what I’m asking is, how soon can I make it and how long will it last for? Thank you so so so so much!

You can make it as early as you like! You will need to mix a hardening agent with your fondant (or buy gumpaste or sugarpaste), but I prefer to use fondant and add tylo powder. Once you make your decorations, leave on baking paper to harden and then keep them in cool place out of the sun. I would definitely start making everything now! It will last for a really long time! I have decorations that are over 2 years old and my kids have sneakily eaten a few and they just become like hard lollies.

My son will be 2 at the end of this month. He is a massive hungry caterpillar fan. I have even decorated his new room with it! I would like to make this cake for his birthday but was wondering if you were showing how to make all the fruit/food etc?
I am also going to attempt to make some cake pops to go with it aswell.
Many thanks
Mummy of 2 gorgeous boys.xx

I recently found your amazing blog and have since been inspired to start baking. I’m planning to make my son’s first birthday cake (the hungry caterpillar) and it will be my first attempt at fondant, I’m a little nervous! Anyway I am buying the supplies I need and am looking at getting a big tub of white fondant and a ‘pack’ of americolor gels. My question is how much coloured gel will be sufficient, particularly for the caterpillar, is a 0.75 oz bottle enough? Thanks

THankyou for your lovely comments 🙂 How exciting that you’ll be making your first cake! yes – that should be plenty for the caterpillar. You don’t need to use much to get a decent colour and the caterpillar isn’t that big… plus you want that marbled effect. Definitely add in the colour bit by bit. Most people recommend using a toothpick to start with as you can always add colour, but you can’t remove it! (I have learnt that lesson many times over through accidentally squeezing too much colour out!!!!)

I’m going to be trying this soon. Did you use 2 inch or 3 inch height cake pans? 2 stacked in each tier? Also, how many lbs. approximately did you use for the fondant? I was planning to cover in buttercream and do all the decorations (food included) in fondant.. do you think this will work?

My cake pans are around 3 inches and I add a lot of mixture so that it fills up higher than the tin. Then if I need more height I will add a decent amount of filling – it really just depends on how my cake turns out. It is very hard to know how much fondant it takes to cover a cake – it will depend on how thick you roll it and how high your cake is. I buy my fondant in bulk so I never actually weigh how much I use.

Yes – you can absolutely cover in buttercream and stick on the fondant decorations. Lots of people have done it that way!

I just wanted to say thank you so much for this tutorial! I wanted a special cake for my son’s first birthday but I was getting quotes for $300 and there was no way I could afford that. (Though now I can understand why, cake making can be difficult!) Anyway, I had never made a cake before so I decided to do a practice cake following your tutorial. I love it! I wouldn’t have been able to do it without your step by step photos. Thank you so much for helping me make a special cake for my little guy. Here’s a photo of how it turned out.

I made this cake for my sons first birthday and it was a hit! I’d love to use the same chocolate cake recipe again as it was lovely and moist. It was a recipe you found on another site, not the mud cake recipe. Does that make sense, anyway sorry if it’s really obvious but I can’t see it here. Can point me in the right direction?

[…] “particular”, so we did this together over the span of a week. We used this tutorial by Bronnie Bakes. Her tutorials and photos are incredibly thorough and detailed, and made the whole process, well, […]